1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet feed control system for automatically controlling a sheet feed mechanism which feeds sheet-like members such as unexposed photographic films in medical image recording apparatus.
2. Prior Art
Recently, there have widely been employed image recording apparatus in which image information produced by a computerized tomographic system or the like is displayed on a CRT display unit or the like, and the displayed image information is recorded on a photographic light-sensitive medium such as a photographic film and thereafter developed into a visible image for medical diagnosis or the like.
In such an image recording apparatus, sheet-like members such as photographic light-sensitive mediums, which are stacked in a magazine, are taken out by a sheet feed mechanism, and then transported to an exposure position by a sheet transporting mechanism.
It is necessary to feed photographic light-sensitive mediums, reliably one by one, from the magazine for subsequent correct exposure operation. To meet such a requirement, it has been customary to operate a suction cup or the like of the sheet feed mechanism with a combination of a motor as a drive source and mechanical elements that are operatively coupled to the motor.
Since the operation of the sheet feed mechanism is determined solely by the operative interlinked coupling between the drive source and the mechanical elements, if physical properties of the sheet-like members are modified or the image recording apparatus is placed in a different environment, the sheet-like members may not be properly fed one at a time from the magazine because the basic operation of the sheet feed mechanism remains unchanged.
If the sheet-like members were not properly fed from the magazine, desired images would not accurately be recorded on the sheet-like members. In the case where the image recording apparatus is used for medical diagnosis, it would be highly difficult or impossible for the doctor to make an appropriate diagnosis due to inaccurate or defective images.